Cyclists with sense of entitlement

Cyclists do have a sense of entitlement, very much so. One of the most noticeable things they think they’re entitled to is riding on the sidewalks. What, there aren’t enough roads for them?

For so long, I’ve watched cyclists making the damnedest manoeuvres, usually in intersections, and I’m constantly amazed that they don’t get killed doing that — they waggle about, ride around in circles and . . . oh, you must have seen them, too.

Just a few days ago, I was about to turn a corner (on foot, on the sidewalk, as always) when a cyclist flew silently past me from behind, no more than an inch away. I can’t count the times this has happened to me, and probably every other pedestrian in the city has had the same experience many times.

One poor lady has already been killed by a sidewalk-riding cyclist, and I’m sure the rest of us fear it daily happening to us. If cyclists can ride all over the sidewalks with impunity, no lights, no bells, no warning, just where can we be safe? We can’t walk on the roads, we’re at the mercy of arrogant idiots on the sidewalks. Where are we “mere” pedestrians supposed to walk?

A number of years ago, a woman rode straight at me on a sidewalk downtown. I couldn’t believe she was doing that, and as I moved aside at the last moment, she snarled, “Yeah, move, lady!” This was a middle-aged woman who might have been expected to know better, but that’s what she said. If I hadn’t moved over (and it was quite a narrow sidewalk), I have no doubt that she would have just run me down. It was years ago now, but I can still see that woman’s snarling face.

Keep the thugs in their own narrow channels, I say. There’s little enough space for foot-travellers already.

Frances Smith, Toronto

Each week, rain, sun or cyclist and walkers, I drive from Burlington to Toronto and up Spadina. Each week I encounter walkers and cyclists who seem to be living under a dome of benign entitlement that the physical laws of survival and the laws of the road do not apply to them.

One cyca-walker recently took the prize by cutting me off when I had the right of way, and gave me the finger while texting. Circus quality performance but perhaps not best suited for one of Canada’s busiest streets.

I’m not happy that the TTC chair got a ticket. Perhaps she deserved it, perhaps not. But the headline, “A traffic nightmare on King Street is alive and not so well on Spadina,” is accurate. It is indeed a nightmare when drivers, cyclists, walkers break the very laws put in place for their safety and police who ignore the transgressions.

I cannot contemplate the grief that would result from someone instantly turning into my one ton plus pathway while texting. Thanks to the officers who have raised the profile on this issue.

Don Graves, Burlington

Where is the logic? Karen Stintz gets a traffic ticket while riding her bike for failing to stop at a stop sign that doesn’t exist and Rob Ford isn’t fined for failing to stop while a streetcar unloads passengers, reading and using a cellphone while driving?